A tremendous bright light flashed and sent an enormous blast rupturing from the depths below. Granny urged her mount higher, as high as it could go, away from the range of the explosion. In the end, the impact was much more significant than she anticipated and, somewhat reluctantly, forced her into casting another ward of protection between her and the aftershock.

A short while later, the dust cloud settled, but a rising heat had brought terrible scalding fumes into existence. Granny was hovering between the pillars of heat rising from below, where a dangerous magma pool had formed in the aftermath of her Great Fireball Incantation. Her gaze slightly furrowed; in the blink of an eye, her lustrous farm had transformed into a battlefield.

Suddenly, a terrible feeling ran through her body. The backlash of using so many high-ranked incantations had appeared. This was to be expected since she failed to prepare, but the anguish of her body rejecting the radiation was beginning.

"cough-cough-cough"

"That was the last Rank 5 Incantation you'll be casting today. And I strongly advise you against using Rank 4 spells as well. You'll only be increasing the backlash," her dark passenger warned her.

"I... I know. I couldn't take any chances. He's carrying way too many secrets. I still feel he hasn't shown us all his abilities."

"He's been purposely limiting what we see, hmm? An Arcanist with the body of a high-ranked Adventurer?"

"How he's able to perform incantations so fast is beyond me. Not to mention, evading the 6-pronged barrier I set up around this place is alarming. No one and I mean no one living, should've been able to work that out so quickly... which can only mean..."

"He knows how to break it. He knew your secrets... perhaps an old enemy of yours?"

"Tsk! All my enemies are dead and gone. Even the most sinister amongst them would not have a clear way of knowing what he knew."

"Even the enemies of the Raito clan?" Her dark passenger suggested.

Granny's brows narrowed in response to that; in truth, she couldn't speak about that ancient clan. She once spent a great deal of her youth helping them rise to unprecedented heights in the Martial underworld.

She had dealt with hundreds of young geniuses during her youth. And the Martial underworld wasn't a simple place. Due to the nature of the hidden ancient clans during that time, there was no telling just which venerable elder might've sent a poisoned pig to cause her great harm.

"It's... it's too uncertain."

"Wait—look, what is that?" Her dark side pointed out.

Granny shifted her uncomfortable gaze towards the crawling lava below. There were small rocky landings floating against the shimmering pool of magma. Slightly narrowing her gaze a little, she only just noticed the faint traces of blood splattered against one of the rocks. From an initial look, one might've dismissed it as a passing spill of blood, possibly one of many things shed during this battle. But there was something odd concerning it.

The puddle of carmine soon shimmered as though a formless wind walked over it. This strange occurrence repeated a few times before suddenly a gloved hand shot out of the small pool of glossy blood.

Granny's gaze briefly widened before her expressionless countenance reappeared. She watched silently as a ghoulish figure slowly climbed out of the puddle of blood.

{Brandt's Mirror}

> **Brandt's Mirror - Rank 5 - Illusion **- "Brandt was an Arcanist of the second age who grew up studying the troupe of performers who specialized in the arts of deception and sleight of hand. Once Brandt's Mana core awakened, he naturally dedicated himself to enhancing the field of illusions. As such, his fame and power grew, and his ego with it. A life of crime ensued. And despite not being the strongest of Arcanists, Brandt seemed always to evade capture.

>

> Decades later, and after his mysterious death, his grimoire was found. Containing quite a strange incantation...Brandt's mirror. Allowing him to use anything casting a reflection as a hiding spot."

First, the arms crawled out, followed closely by that unmissable top hat of his. He very quickly pulled his entire body away from the blood pool. She could hear him gasping for breath at first; a few moments later, he was heckling into a cackling laughter.

"He's still alive?"

"It seems so; that must be an ability of his. Perhaps the reason why he can't die so easily," Granny thought, was the likely cause of this current scene.

While she observed him from above, her thoughts fell into a cycle of fishing for ideas, playing the scenario out within her mind, and calculating the possibilities of survival before moving on to the next.

Casting huge incantations wouldn't work here. So, she only had one other viable option.

"A sealing ritual? Do you think that's wise in your current state?" Her dark passenger reminded her.

"Just back me up where necessary." Granny's mind was set; while her book hovered below her palm, poised to act, she strangely felt her body moving slowly. A wind of danger and caution stirred. She held her movements briefly and slowly beheld the tall beige coat of the masked figure, finally shedding itself away.

A look of surprise flashed across her expressionless mask; those two humps previously concealed beneath his coat turned out to be two puppet heads attached to his shoulders. The left-sided puppet depicted a little girl with long dark hair and bright eyes. The right-sided puppet was one of a little boy with white hair and clear red eyes.

Their faces mechanically twisted upright to face her own, and within that very second, Granny started to piece together a few things.

"So that's how... those are apparatuses he's using to cast incantations." Her face paled into a mask of horror once she arrived at that realization. With those things in place, it was no wonder his casting speed was that quick. Granny steadied her breathing as she flexed her arm again, readying herself for another incantation.

"W-wait!" The masked figure called out hurriedly.

Surprisingly, Granny halted in her movements before slowly lowering her staff towards her side.

"Heh-h-heh... You have a lot of questions and doubts. W-well, let me shed some light upon my identity. Isn't that the proper way two respectable Arcanists conduct themselves before a duel?" He stammered nervously.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Granny's patience had worn thin to the point she couldn't remember being this agitated and eager to kill someone in such a long time. But she would be lying if she said she enjoyed fighting in the dark like this.

The mysterious fellow was too challenging to read. Neither his attacks nor his movements were regular. There wasn't any concise pattern of what discipline he might've studied.

An Arcanist almost always showed which one of the eight disciplines they fell under. Despite being able to cast spells that fell beneath different disciplines, the core of their discipline would always show. Granny, being a conjurer, was easy to discern after trading several spells with her.

Most Arcanists revealed their background based on the style of incantations they used. The unorthodox way of fighting and heavy reliance on apparatuses and materials told her he was perhaps versed in multiple disciplines to an extent. But she held a feeling he was an illusionist at heart.

Usually, Arcanists who were talented enough to split their consciousness into more than one zone were quite capable of this feat.

Although this wasn't something most people could do.

The other side of things she thought about was perhaps the masked figure choosing to fight this way and purposefully hiding behind these rare artefacts to conceal his true power.

That possible outcome led Granny to take this moment to deploy caution. She had already used large amounts of her Mana and wanted to give her body a chance to replenish what she had lost.

Staring at those two puppets attached to its shoulders, her golden eye slightly squinted, quickly able to discern those puppets were, in fact, living artefacts, both Graded (S).

Now she was almost sure she needed time to study things.

"S-so we have a deal then, I take it? G-g-great, yes-yes-that's how it's supposed to be, hahaha. Well then, where are my manners? I am... well... you see, I'm not quite sure what I am."

Granny's brow furrowed at the mention of that. Was he still playing games and using this situation to allow her to drop her guard? She ensured her opened grimoire pages were still hovering close to her fingers.

Seeing this, the Mask fellow noticeably cleared his throat loud enough to be heard before he continued to shed light on his cryptic words.

"S-so-so, I meant to say I don't have a name, aha! Honestly, you can call me what you like. That's what most people do anyway," a nervous laugh sounded through the firm mask.

Granny remained unmoved by the false charm and stood almost motionless, locked onto his every move.

He continued.

"Some call me the 'Nameless wanderer,' to others, I'm somewhat of a peacemaker, funnily enough.

The Masked One to a select few... and one of my favourites so far! The Faceless Arcanist," he almost sang the last words with glee, spreading his two arms apart as he tilted his masked helm back, taking in the vast clear skies above.

"Why did you come here?" Granny's voice was stern, her gaze never wavering despite the troubling feeling encircled within her chest.

"Hm? Oh—right, it's question time again. Yes, well, we should start with that... how do I put this without sounding too cryptic? Well, this should probably explain it better." He twisted towards his right side, now facing the standing oak. Granny realized he was focusing on something in particular.

Her gaze suddenly shot open, arriving at what was beside the tree.

"The children? You did all of this for-" Her words fell short beneath the silent truth, needing no words. Now that she was assured about the assailant's objectives, she would show no more restraint nor acts of carelessness.

The air around her started to distort and whine again visibly. Her roaring intent was screaming to burst free. Emotions had been the trigger point beside someone's intent, and Granny's emotions had long since boiled past the threshold of calmness. Now that things had reached this point, what was the point of holding anything back?

"You think I'll let you take those kids away?" Her voice almost growled as though a death God had descended

"Whoa-whoa— I thought we were having a cordial timeout, no? Something of a gentleman's break? L-l-let's be r-reasonable; I'm simply being honest, truly." he said, throwing his arms out in protest.

"Plus, you haven't allowed me to finish. I... I have no intention of harming the little fellows. Believe it or not, I have a moral compass, and in my world, children and the elderly are off-limits." He placed his opposite hand over his heart to emphasize this. But Granny wasn't moved, although her ire did noticeably fall upon understanding something.

Granny didn't miss the hidden meaning behind those words.

'Otherworld.'

"Wait, who sent you here, and which child have you come scouting for?"

In all her years as an Arcanist, mostly dark organisations have such strange pretences. Kidnapping talented youth and forcing them into their cults.

"Oh! So you've caught on—nice one!" He said with a thumbs up.

"You might not have heard about us; we're a little new, but you can call us-hehe... YAMA ."

'Yama? That name...' Granny thought to herself, trying to figure out where she had heard that before

'It's the Demon.' Her dark passenger answered the mystery for her

'What do you mean?'

'The last demon King... his son... the traitorous spawn was Yama.'

Granny felt a coldness twisting in her gut. Nothing pleasant ever came out of the mention of demons. The things one would hear regarding the ancient race of those fellows were enough to steer the true sense of fear upon your heart. Even if it was slightly commonplace for fanatics and crazed organizations to adopt some of the taboo practices of those beings, one could never be too casual around them.

Granny was beginning to piece together a profile and slightly understand the potential whys and what's about this impromptu attack.

Her curiosity had been itched, the secrets revealed at last, and the truth made her sick.

"Whatever it is you thought you'd accomplish, you overestimated yourself. Now... die."

She waved her staff, and the air between them both whined again. The eruption of a sharp howl marred the skies, followed by a crippling wind disturbing the atmosphere. Before the masked fellow held a chance to flee, he heard soft cracks beneath the earthy ground beneath his soles.

"Oh, crap-n-not this again."

Dozens of ghoulish pale hands erupted from below, splashing smouldering magma into the air. He felt one of his trailing ankles caught by one of those bony white hands. Then, a second, a third, and a fourth. The objective of Granny's incantation was evident to see.

A throat-curdling scream of murder cried pitifully aloud while countless pale hands dragged him into the contained pool of lava.

"OH COME ON! W-W-E-WE HAD A DEAL-SPPARE ME PL-PLEASEE-GUAAAAAH!"

Granny's cold stare never wavered as she watched his body being incinerated with it being pulled deeper into the smouldering pool of fire. Her eyes remained coldly focused on the scene before her. She refused even to blink, not until she saw it with her own two eyes, that black top hat finally burning into ashes.